Anna Martinez Has Nothing Nice to Say
Anna Martinez made it plain in the first poem she read after being named Albuquerque’s new poet laureate — “Take nice and shove it.”
Martinez has lived her life speaking out, speaking her truth and speaking to defend the truths of others. Now that she is the city's poet, she has no plans to change. Not two months into her tenure she is already getting hate mail. Imagine a poet getting hate mail about her words. Those must be some extraordinarily powerful words.
Threshold and the Strange Attractor
Being in the presence of art sounds pompous, but it is undeniable. Being there is where it is at. Watching a video of a dance piece is not the same as being in the room with dancers, with live music, where you can hear the footfalls and you can see the heavy breathing. It is a rare thing to see a live contemporary dance piece in Albuquerque. Rarer still to see an independent one. This Thursday, we get that chance.
Fathers of New Mexico
Happy Father’s Day! Too bad it’s not all that happy for all fathers. Nobody said it was going to be easy to be a father, but the challenges can be overwhelming in a culture that often views fathers as secondary in a child’s life. Bias manifest in social services, schools and courtrooms. That's where Fathers New Mexico often comes in.
Dry Heat in a Comedy Ghost Town
Albuquerque comedian Sarah Kennedy began asking questions in a formal way through her podcast Comedy Ghost Town in January. In it, she interviews comedians, academics and elected officials to find the edges of the problems of opening a comedy club in Albuquerque and tries to publicly work through some of the solutions. Spoiler Alert: In the final episode she announces she and her wife Kelli Trapnell are just going to open up a comedy club themselves. On June 23, that’s exactly what they are going to do. It’s called Dry Heat.
Stranger Days Ahead
Among the things that seemed to slip from our grip during the Covidtimes in Albuquerque was the Stranger Factory. A fixture in Nob Hill for nearly a decade, this space on Central Avenue was part gallery, part store and a whole lot of creepy stuff. Not like the kind of creepy stuff going on in other parts of Central Avenue, but well-made, high-quality art that veered towards the macabre. It was a welcome home to the odd, and elegantly so.